1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to storage devices, and more particularly to improved storage devices to temporarily store parts in storage racks ready for transport and eventual use by workers on assembly lines. Most particularly, the present invention relates to an improved storage device to temporarily store automobile steering wheels in storage racks ready for shipment to and installation by automotive assembly line workers in automobiles during the assembly process.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The problem of how to efficiently and safely store a sufficient number of steering wheels beside an automobile assembly line has been present ever since the invention of the automotive assembly line. Current methods now in use are neither space efficient, nor safe.
Currently, storage racks having a number of vertical spindles are used. These storage racks are provided with heavy weighted bases to militate against movement. Vertical rods over which the steering wheel hubs are placed extend upwardly from the bases. A number of steering wheels, alternated with spacers to prevent contact of the wheels with each other, and prevent scuffing, are placed seriatim on the spindles. The spindles may also be mounted on wheeled frames.
When so mounted, due to stacking requirements, they are limited to thirty inches in height. This height limit provides a severe limit to the number of steering wheels which can be place on each rack.
To increase the number of steering wheels that can be stored, the vertical spindles are often times placed in a matrix arrangement, and this poses a serious health problem. As steering wheels are removed from any particular spindle, the worker must reach farther and farther down the spindle to remove the next steering wheel. Since the worker is bending over in the midst of many spindles, frequent eye injuries occur when the worker's head or eye comes in contact with the top of one spindle, while the worker is bending over to pick a steering wheel off another spindle. These accidents are so frequent that this type of device has been referred to in the art as an "eye poker."
In addition, serious ergonomic problems, in the form of back problems, have come about because of all the bending which the worker needs to do, and because of the particular direction of bending. For all these reasons, the search for a safer, more efficient and less expensive method of storing steering wheels next to automotive assembly lines has been one of long standing.
The prior art has revealed many types of racks for storage of many types of parts. Racks, such as those disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 870,835 to Charles H. Loew, and U.S. Pat. No. 1,856,935 to Giles M. Turner, show racks having a plurality of swingable supports or shelves pivotably mounted on a central frame member. However, even though these devices maintain a plurality of shelves in a parallel spaced relationship, they are not directed to the particular problems associated with steering wheel storage, and do not serve to hold the parts in an offset nesting relationship for easy access by the assembly line worker.
Likewise, patents such as U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,716,495 to C. E. Prevette et al., 2,982,419 to R. A. Shiels, and 3,762,572 to Clarence H. Hager, disclose a plurality of shelf means pivotally supported near their rear edges, and thus, are somewhat similar to the present invention. None of these patents, and in fact no patents found during a search of the prior art, is specifically directed to the problems of steering wheel storage.